Monday, December 14, 2009

Announced through Tor.com, Night Shade Books has put out the call, looking for people's favorite fairy tales and retellings to put into a 'reprint anthology', titled "Happily Ever After" - and you can have a say in what goes into the new collection!Night Shade Book's editor for the new collection, John Klima, is aware of (and loves) the (totally awesome) fairy tale series by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, some of which I'm including images of in this post (I'm not sure if that includes the newer YA collections) but says if you want to see any of those stories reprinted, don't hesitate to recommend them. The only requirement for any stories put forward is that they've been published in some format before.Here's the blurb:

While I’m not doing a submission reading period like Jeff and Ann VanderMeer, I am looking for help in finding science fiction and fantasy versions of fairy tales. Following the lead of John Joseph Adams, I’ve created a story recommendation website for Happily Ever After. There, people can let me know about their favorite science fiction/fantasy fairy tales. My definition of fairy tale is pretty open. That is, you don’t need to stick to just Grimm Brothers or Hans Christian Andersen stories.

Now, I’ve got the excellent Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling anthologies, but don’t hesitate to recommend stories out of them. Also, don’t worry if someone else has already recommended your favorite story; recommend it again. The only rule is that I’m looking for reprints so the story has to have appeared somewhere else. People who recommend a story that ends up in the anthology will get thanked in the book.

Typically I'm thinking of your standard European fairy tales (e.g., Cinderella, Snow White, Rumpelstilskin, The Little Mermaid, Hansel and Gretel, and so on) but I would love to get recommendations on lesser-known fairy tales, as well as fairy tales from other countries/continents. I will need English-language material, however.

Mr. Klima says writers can even recommend their own work, provided it's been published before.

How cool is that? Here's the really cool part: the website where you can submit your picks! Even if you're shy about putting in your two cents, I recommend checking out the growing list. You may discover versions you're not familiar with and rediscover old favorites (which you can re-recommend).

You have until the end of December to add your suggestions to the database.